Interesting concept. Tots?
FWIW I would dig a place where the kitchen stays open till 1:30AM.
I think Iâm offended at the idea that a restaurant wishes to discriminate against adults of different ages.
By the by, back in the days when I would have been too young to eat here, one of the restaurants in our local Chinatown was open till at least 3am. My recollection (vague as it is - we are talking 50 years back) is that they were catering for other Chinese people who worked in restaurants and takeaways out in the suburbs and who would come into the city centre after their businesses closed.
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My newspaperâs take on the story
I can understand âbanningâ very young children and I appreciate that theyâre going for a vibe here, but I think their mistake is using a number. Itâs generalization and stereotyping, which is not going to sit well with that segment of the population (putting the legality issue aside). Even for children, I would put visible wording to the effect that children are welcome if they are well behaved, and remain seated at the table during the meal with the exception of using the restrooms. The restaurant is an active work site and to avoid injury to customers and workers, parties with children who cannot behave appropriately may be asked to leave.
You can absolutely create a vibe and an atmosphere differently, like with the lighting, music, the set up of the room, and heck even a certain dress code. Heck it should be all over your branding and marketing of the restaurant, without saying 30 or under not welcome. This will attract the crowd that wants that chill vibe they want without making assumptions about how a person behaves.
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âWhen asked about legal concerns, Tina and Marvin Pate reiterated that they didnât want to restrict anyone from their restaurant.â
But they ARE restricting lots of âanyonesâ from their restaurant. Anyone under 35 for men, anyone under 30 for women. It goes against laws that say you cannot discriminate based on sex - men who are between the ages of 30 and 34years, 364 days are discriminated against.
Someone in one of my food groups put it this way:
âWhy be exclusionary on a whole class of people rather than simply denying service to specific A**holes who ruin the vibe?â
I have to say I concur.
ârestrictingâ the clientele is an okay idea by me - but their âlimitsâ are seriously out in whacko-dizzy-landâŚ
methinks restos could do a lot better by isolating the âhappy hour bar loud drunks&gigglers&screechersâ from the dining patrons.
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In my 14 years of stupidity, oops i mean owning restaurants, i had some really bad experiences with male customers. But I had more with female. So that these folks are discriminating by gender reeks. I would never set foot in a place with discrimination built into their model.
We had one in my home city . I canât even tell you how many times during the summer my friend would show up at our house at 1 am and announce we were going there. My parents were fine with it (plus, we were all night owls). The resto was legendary even then. My friend passed away last summer. RIP to both my friend and the storied Chinese restaurant.
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A number of years ago, a sushi place opened in my city that didnât allow people under, I think, age 16. The particular neighborhood was full of families with plenty of disposable income and wide ranging palates. The market spoke and the place didnât last long.
Maybe this âno one under 30â place will appeal, maybe not 
This is a tricky issue in the UK. The usual legal age for ordering and drinking alcohol is 18 and itâs similarly illegal for an adult to purchase alcohol for a young person. The general exception is if the young person is eating a meal when it is legal for an adult to purchase alcohol for 16 - 17 year olds. But all of this is conditioned by the establishmentâs licence to sell alcohol. Itâs not generally any problem for standalone restaurants but can get more restrictive in the case of pubs which serve food, particularly those which do not have a separate eating area. To be on the safe side , pubs often set their own restrictions, perhaps limiting young people to their separate restaurant area (if they have one) or perhaps limiting the times between which young people may be in the pub.
Itâs pretty much a free-for all in beer gardens in Germany. Legal drinking age is 16: for beer, wine, sparkling wine. 14 yr olds may drink beer, wine or sparkling wine while accompanied by adults 
; 18 is the age limit for hard liquor/spirits. People bring children of all ages to the beer garden, from infant to adolescent, but I believe you have to be 18 to enter an actual bar, although the presence of parents/accompanying adults may allow it.
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I think the larger issue is that the age cut off is different depending on male/female. I think the issue is less about having an age cut off (thatâs more about what the cityâs restaurant market will bear) but rather that disparate ages for the cut off is discriminatory because they should be the same regardless of gender under that stateâs law (at least according to some folks in the article. Iâm not a lawyer.).
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Itâs a strange cut-off. Everything about this is strange.
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The sex difference in the age restrictions is⌠weird. And probably sexist, though Iâm struggling to understand their reasoning. Iâm betting itâs more to do with âwell, guys always have younger girlfriends soâŚâ
What likely makes it illegal is the utterly arbitrary nature of the age cutoff. Bars/pubs/my favorite micro cinema are 21+ only based on their licensure requirements.
Here, it seems like such a strange mechanism to control clientele, something which could easily be accomplished via dress codes / pricing / the right advertising etc, none of which are legally problematic and all of which are probably more effective than this at keeping ill-behaved morons out of your establishment.
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There is a bar\restaurant in my area. The bar is very large, has a piano, stage and large dance floor. Most evenings feature a dj, weekends usually have a band. The thing is, whatever the source of the music it tends to be dance tunes . . . from the 40s more or less. Thereâs no age restrictions, but I have not seen many patrons under retirement age (and some of those folks can still cut a mean rug 
So I think there are other ways to ensure a âcertain clientele.â
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